After his training session with Kara, Marvin had come to his old home since no one would be there, which would give him the solitude he hadn’t wanted so desperately for a long time. Not to mention the backyard, while not blocked off like his grandmother’s, was enclosed enough for him to train.

“Toxon tou Apollona.”

The chant itself was familiar to Marvin. A sentence in ancient Greek, proclaiming the weapon’s identity.

Apollo’s bow. Although the sentence made it sound grand, in truth it wasn’t all that different from a regular bow, with the fact that it was summonable being the thing that made it stand out among the rest of its kind. As for the pitch black object itself, he’d used it enough times, mostly while practicing, for it to feel comfortable in his hand. An arrow had materialised with it in his spare hand, and he aimed it at the target.

“Multi.” he whispered, focusing on the arrow. Shooting it, he found that it landed in a way that it barely missed the yellow area of the circle. Not a bad shot, especially considering he wasn’t focused on where he was shooting other than the fact that it was the general area of the target.

Breathing heavily, he inwardly cursed himself as he didn’t manage to get the arrow to duplicate itself as he wanted.

“You aren’t supposed to focus on the arrow when using that spell.” came an amused voice behind him. He instinctively formed another arrow in his hand, and turned around to find Maria smirking at him.

“Why are you here?” he asked, a tone of panic in his voice as he tightened his grip on the bow.

He’d gotten plenty better at using Gleipnir and the elemental spells, Ignis especially, but the one that was supposed to be the easiest-and currently most useful-of them all, Multi, still escaped him. Not to mention that after so much training, he wasn’t in any shape to battle, and he found himself against an opponent he knew he couldn’t defeat alone even in normal circumstances.

“I forgot my notebook.” she replied simply, except that wasn’t true. No, someone like her wouldn’t make that mistake, not so often anyways.

“Tell me the truth.” growled the dark haired teen.

“That’s right I used that excuse last time, didn’t I?” laughed the brunette. “In any case, my reasons for that are personal. Nothing for you to worry about. And unlike you, I’ve been told that I am welcome here at any time.”

“This is my house.” snapped back Marvin. He lived here, before all this nonsense came to his life. Before Maria even knew of the place and she dared to say that to him?

“I see that I got to you? Good. But I think we should stop messing around here. You are completely tired and alone. In other words, you’re completely exposed right now. If I wanted it, I could have killed you three times in the time I’ve been in the area, and covered my tracks while I was at it.” explained Maria, looking at him with hate.

“Why didn’t you do it then? You’d have made everyone’s lives easier.” bitterly muttered Marvin without letting his guard down.

“You want to die Marvin Perlie?” questioned Maria, sounding legitimately shocked. Marvin felt a pang of pride at that sound.

‘How simpler would everything have been if I was?’ questioned the darkest part of himself. Sure he’d promised himself that he’d do as much good as he could, but was he really needed there?

He’d be able to confront Amdis easily instead of fighting a battle he was sure he couldn’t win.

He wouldn’t drag his friends down in serious situations as he had against the hybrid minotaur.

Adam, Jacob and Trevon wouldn’t feel obligated to have him in their friend group. They’d be able to enjoy their own dynamic.

Eobard and Kara would form a more stable team and, in spite of their words, he knew they’d get over it with time.

Annie would remember him fondly as she’d never get old enough to see him for what he was.

His grandmother was the only one he truly believed needed him as much as he needed her. He was the last link to her firstborn son. She would be the most saddened of all, but even she would move on, live a better life without him to burden her as he had for the past five years.

And Marly-well Marly would find someone much better than himself to trust with her secrets. Someone much better to care for and who would care for her back. Who wouldn’t be jealous in her moments of happiness, who’d fulfill his role better than he ever could. Someone that wouldn’t hide from her everything he did.

“No. I don’t.” whispered Marvin. It was normal to wish for life. To want to live. And many people gave their own lives so he’d be able to. So why did he feel ashamed that he didn’t want to die?

Why did it, like so many other things recently, feel wrong to him?

“Good.” responded Maria, shocking the teen. “Focus on the bow itself when it comes to Multi, that’s the main part of what you summoned. Not the arrows. Do that and you’re going to succeed in using it. Kara Snow is a good sorceress, who’d have thought that she’d be unable to teach you such a basic spell. Now get out of the house, I’d rather be alone.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“What?”

“I’m not going to hurt you. Just go back to your friends.”

Deciding he’d rather not tempt fate, Marvin began leaving, not once taking his eyes off the babysitter-slash-sorceress. Once he was inside the house itself, he dissolved the bow, running out the front door.

Only to run straight into CB, whose massive build was barely phased by the encounter, while Marvin himself barely managed not to fall over backwards due to the collision.

“What do you want?” snapped Marvin, before his eyes widened and he apologised.

“I wanted to talk to you. Nice to see what I’m getting myself into.” responded CB, smirking down at Marvin.

“Half of our conversations have been you insulting me. I think I’m going to pass on that.” dryly responded Marvin, not in the mood for CB’s general nonsense.

“I was with Marly, you know.” continued the larger teen like Marvin had never spoken. “With her, the few regular friends we have, anda dozen or so people that were following her around like puppies. People you don’t know, but I do.

“Just like you never knew Ava. Things were bad, but they were manageable. Then you came along and the balance-it shifted. Somehow, you became the hero of our story. The one who’s needed to save her. The one Marly trusts more than anyone else. The one that got Adam to actually do something without even trying!” shouted CB in an accusatory tone, as if Marvin asked for any of this-this madness.

While their last encounters weren’t civil-and they didn’t even talk with one another at all during the ‘circle of trust’ meeting-the shorter teen was under the impression they’d reached a sort of understanding with each other. Sure CB didn’t like Marvin, and Marvin was beyond trying to make him change his mind, but they could respect each other enough to not argue like children every time they spoke.

He never thought to consider why it was that CB disliked him in the first place, other than the fact he was new. Was that the way he saw those past few months? Even then, if his arguments were actually correct-which they weren’t-why would he bring that up now?

“I hope you can understand how ridiculous you sound, right?” he asked. “Even if half of what you said was true, I’m certain you wouldn’t want to be in my shoes.”

CB’s eyes seemed to sparkle at the barely contained anger in Marvin’s voice.

“Then tell me!” he shouted. “Tell me what your problems are , oh great hero!” he taunted, venom leaking from his voice.

And Marvin smiled. An ugly, self-loathing smile. Because this, this felt right.

No secrets. No agendas. No unreasonable fears. Just a person that hated Marvin while he was more than happy to return the favour. For the briefest moment, dozens of faces were layered over CB’s. Some were attached with names, some with memories, a few even with some scars on his body.

His hand wasn’t trembling this time.

“And this is what makes me feel at home. I’m messed up.” muttered Marvin. At CB’s questioning look, he attempted to elaborate. “I-I don’t know how to talk about this. And the fact that it’s with you of all people. So come at me you ogre.” he finished with a dark chuckle.

CB sighed in response and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. Not the first time they’d been in a similar position, but definitely unique. “Damn you. Tell me. Tell me why it’s you. Why couldn’t we do anything ourselves? Why couldn’t I do anything?! Why am I so useless?”

And Marvin laughed, which earned him a punch in the face from the werewolf, knocking him back on the ground.

The fact that they were alone in the midday of Atlanta was surprising enough, although the suburbs didn’t have much commotion at this time, they were lucky-or maybe unlucky-enough to have their privacy in this conversation.

“Every time I talk to Amdis. When we fought the minotaur. And so many more.” responded Marvin, rubbing his, surely bruised, right eye. “Every time I think about what happened in this godforsaken week and before that, I ask myself that same question. For more reasons than you know, I don’t deserve any of this. Marly’s trust, Adam’s friendship, Kara and Eobard’s guidance. I leech off of them to have some moments of peace. Everything I have done could be done better by anyone else. I’m completely useless.” he finished, content to let out a piece of his suffering.

Lord, he sounded too edgy even to himself then.

To his surprise, CB laughed as well. “Never thought it’d be you that I relate to so much shortie.” He sighed as he turned around. “I don’t think we can keep going like this though.”

“Well, what do you think we should do?” questioned Marvin, baffled at how this conversation was turning out.

“I don’t know about you, but I think I’m going to leave.”

“After you made all the grand declarations about being useless? And here I thought you’d do something about it.”

“I’m talking about summer camp you fool.” snapped CB. “Adam and I used to go together. I’ll talk to him and see if he wants to go. Try to recapture our friendship. And before you make any snarky remarks, it’s a special werebeast thing. Hundreds of people like us will be there. I think it will be good.”

“Good for you.” responded the shorter teen without thinking. Sure, CB and Adam had a friendship to recapture. Remembering the reason Adam distanced himself from his childhood friends, he prayed that everything would work out for the best.

Not just for Adam either. This CB, the vulnerable, honest and still strong enough to try and better himself, this CB he was rooting for.

Could he also attempt something like that? Probably not. He was still the person that was jealous of his friends’ happiness. Who kept secret after secret.

Could he at least come clean?

A pale white face with dual eyes popped into his head. The sun was beginning to set. He’d spent most of his day training. He found it odd how few people were outside at the time. For a moment he thought Maria might have had something to do with that but quickly brushed the idea aside.

Wednesday was soon coming to an end. Tomorrow he’d face Marly. Come clean. What exactly he’d be coming clean about was a mystery even to himself. The Circle of Trust? He was confident she wouldn’t speak to her grandfather. He hoped. But it wasn’t a secret that was his, alone. But the secrets that were his own, they would surely make her hate him.

Could he risk that?

He’d have figure it out when he got there. When she was in front of him, and he wasn't dealing in hypotheticals, he knew that much.

He also knew that he could very well be making a massive mistake. But one he was convinced he might need to make.

He only hoped that, at the end of the day, mistake or not, that he wouldn’t ruin everything.